We asked Dr. Ira Leifer – a University of California geochemist who is an expert on natural hydrocarbon oil and gas emissions from the seabed – whether he believed BP’s explanation.

Dr. Leifer told us:

Those “globules” look very weathered, not the type of drops that make slicks.

Dr. Leifer also noted:

I also do not see 100 gals per day, more like 1 gallon equivalent.

Dr. Leifer has expertise in this area: he is the head of the government’s flow study group tasked with estimating the amount of oil released by the BP spill.

We also asked Dr. Leifer if globules like those shown in the video could end up being aggregated in a continuous oil sheen, and he responded:

Depends on the currents and turbulence and shear. However, they still would beunlikely to form a slick. Much more likely to get stuck in the deep sea after aggregating with marine snow…. Of course we only have the video they released, so other video could show something very different….

Dr. Leifer is not the only prominent scientist skeptical of BP’s claim. Other scientists such as Dr. Ian MacDonald and Dr. Robert Bea are skeptical as well.